


The Top of the World

by TerrusDacktellus



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics)
Genre: F/M, comic fic, season 10, so much handwaving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:11:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5745130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerrusDacktellus/pseuds/TerrusDacktellus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The race to close portals and keep a lid on demon activity takes Spike and Buffy to a fairly extreme place. But, hey, at least they're there together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Top of the World

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short snippet written for a fic meme on Tumblr in an effort to break through some sucky writer's block. The prompt was "things you said when we were on top of the world."

There had to be an easier way to do this.

Buffy scrubbed snow out of her eyes and peered upwards. The towering bulk of Everest loomed above them, stretching on and on to nearly blot out the sky. Naturally Willow hadn’t been able to teleport them all the way to the top. Of course the ‘geographical significance of the world’s highest point threw up too much interference.’ Of freaking course it did. She stomped on, the bitter wind eating through her clothes, then realised that the steady stream of bitching which had accompanied her half way up the mountain had stopped.

“Spike?” she called, looking around anxiously. There was an agonising pause before she finally made out a hunched shape lurching through the blizzard.

“Come on,” she yelled impatiently. “Before you freeze solid.”

Neither of them had any idea what would happen if a vamp’s body temperature dropped significantly below zero and neither of them were particularly keen to find out.

“Storm’s not bloody natural,” growled Spike when he finally reached her. His teeth weren’t chattering because, hello, vampire, but his words were slurred as though his jaw and tongue were stiff. Buffy caught his elbow and hauled him along with her, trying not to let her worry show. Freezing solid was looking like an alarmingly real possibility. Clinging to each other, they soldiered on.

There were no climbers out, kept in base camp by the bad weather, perhaps. Or maybe, thought Buffy, even normal people could sense a magical disturbance of this size. Even despite the increasing numbness of her skin, she could feel the dark power of the storm, like pins and needles creeping up and down her arms. The air was impossibly thin, even before the spiteful wind whipped her breath away. Good old Will, she’d done her best to offset the altitude sickness and oxygen deprivation, but even all her charms and talismans weren’t a match for the might of the mountain.

“Everest is just too powerful,” Willow had said and she was right. Buffy stopped again, her legs cramping with a burning pain that mere exhaustion. There were people who climbed this thing for fun?!

Spike turned to her, ice crystals coating his dark eyebrows, his skin nearly turning blue, looking for all the world like Jack Frost.

“Don’t give up now, Slayer,” he urged her and over the howling gale, his voice was warm and familiar. “We’re so close.”

“How am I supposed to fight a demon lord after this?” she said desperately and Spike groped for her hand.

“We’ll fight, you mean,” he said. “We’re a team, yeah?”

Another violent tremor of cold ran through her, but he was looking at her with that fierce, adoring belief that had sustained her before when she’d had nothing. He gripped her hand tightly until she could feel it even with her thick gloves and frozen fingers.

“Forward,” she stuttered, because it was all she could get out through the violent chattering of her teeth, and he nodded.

The last stretch surpassed pain; Buffy felt almost disconnected from her body, as though she was watching her own shambling wreck trudge towards the top instead of feeling the screeching of her muscles with every step. Then, with a last agonised gasp, she broke through. They had reached the top of the world and the sun was shining, the storm below a harsh illusion. There were demons to fight and a portal to close, of course, but for one moment, she stood with Spike at the summit, with the world laid out at their feet. In the shocked pause that followed, as the demons emerging from the portal froze in horror, Buffy glanced at Spike and saw her own joy reflected in his face as he took in the view.

“I’m glad it’s you here with me,” she said. There were other things she wanted to say - I’m happy to have someone to share this with. I’m so relieved I’m not alone. I couldn’t have done it without you - but that was what came out and judging by the light in his eyes as they charged into battle, it had been the right thing.


End file.
